Minneapolis: Teen gets 28 years in killing of sleeping 5-year-old boy

Rochelle Banks-Woho, left, the grandmother of Nizzel George, 5, is consoled by a friend as she holds a photo of the boy who was killed by gunfire as he slept on the couch in the living room of his grandmother's home in North Minneapolis in June 2012. (Pioneer Press: Chris Polydoroff)

The teen who admitted he killed 5-year-old Nizzel George was sentenced to 28 years in prison.

But while the plea bargain that puts gang member Stephon Shannon behind bars for second-degree murder closes the book on his criminal case, it was a deal only the lawyers were satisfied with.

"I hate him! He should've gotten the electric chair!" Christina Banks, Nizzel's mother, exclaimed as she left the courtroom after the proceedings Tuesday, Feb. 5, in Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis.

The defendant's grandmother wasn't happy, either. "I don't agree with what went on in the courtroom," Susan McRoy said afterward. "This isn't over."

She paused a moment. "That isn't a threat," she added.

Shannon is 17; he will be 36 before he is eligible for supervised release.

The lanky teen had his hands and feet manacled throughout the proceedings; before it started, he shared a laugh about something with one of his two lawyers; whatever it was, it left him smiling.

When Hennepin County District Judge Daniel Mabley asked him if he had anything to say, Shannon said that he was sorry and that he didn't intend to kill the child.

"I want them to know I apologize for my actions," he said in a quiet voice.

Nizzel, described by relatives as a ball of energy whose favorite toy was a Nerf gun, was shot as he lay sleeping on a couch in his grandmother's house June 26.

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Police said Shannon and another youth, Julian Kijuan Lamar Anderson, 15, fired at the house because they thought somebody there had shot at their residence a couple of blocks away a few hours earlier.

A judge ordered Anderson to stand trial as an adult, but his case is on hold while Anderson appeals the ruling to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

In his plea bargain, Shannon admitted to second-degree murder in association with a gang.

Stephon Shannon

In return, the state dropped two counts of first-degree murder -- which could have sent him to prison for life -- and another count of second-degree murder.

Of the volley of bullets, five rounds ripped through the front wall of Nizzel's grandmother's home. Police aren't sure whether Shannon or Anderson fired the fatal shot; they're not even sure of the caliber of the slug that killed the boy.

The weapons have never been recovered, and Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Susan Crumb said prosecutors don't know where the guns came from or how they wound up in the hands of two teens.

President Barack Obama mentioned Nizzel's death Monday while discussing gun violence with police and community leaders at a police station less than a mile from the murder scene.

Shannon was to go on trial next week. But on Thursday, he agreed to the deal. One element he held out for and the state agreed to: He won't have to testify against Anderson or anyone else.

When he pleaded guilty Friday, Shannon acknowledged that murder was his intent when he shot at the house, but he said he never intended to kill a child.

In a victim-impact statement before sentencing, Desera George, Nizzel's grandmother, thanked the judge for sentencing Shannon and said, "I have no animosity toward this young man."

Aunt Shannon George wasn't as forgiving. "He took somebody that was very precious to our family," she told the judge. "It's not a joke."

She said 28 years was a long sentence, "but I don't feel like it's enough."

After the hearing, Desera George doubted the sincerity of Shannon's apology. "He had his gangbanger friends in there. He didn't mean that," she said.

Police said the shooting stemmed from a months-long feud between two rival gangs or cliques that frequented two houses a couple of blocks from each other in Minneapolis' far north Lind-Bohanon neighborhood.

Hours before Nizzel's shooting, someone fired shots at a home in the 4500 block of Camden Avenue North. It is the address Shannon listed as his residence, and police say the house was used by a group calling itself the "Skitz Squad," named for Juwon "Skitz" Osborne, 16, whose September 2011 killing remains unsolved.

The woman living in the Camden Avenue house was Osborne's mother, and when Shannon was arrested, he told police she was his mother, too; in reality, she is no relation to the teen.

Court records said Shannon's biological mother abandoned him and his three siblings, and Shannon had no father of record. McRoy had been Shannon's primary caregiver almost since his birth in March 1995, and in 2002, a court gave her custody.

McRoy said her grandson "fell in with the wrong crowd."

After the hearing, lead defense attorney David DeSmidt said he understood the reluctance of Nizzel's family to believe Shannon felt sorry.

"I believe he wasn't just remorseful that he got caught and is going to prison for 28 years," DeSmidt said. "I think it started to hit home what was going on out there and the effect of what happened."